A sober warning (and one of the best essays I have read thus far about Ferguson):

[KingCharlemagne]

58. I am going to have to punt on the issue(s) around the Ferguson Market video, at least

for now. When the video was first released by Ferguson PD Chief Thomas Jackson and his department back in August (concurrent with release of the killer cop's identity), I had a very poor internet connection that meant interminable waits while videos buffered. I have subsequently secured a much better internet connection and have watched the video since then, but have now lost track of all the issue(s) around it.

So I would ask anyone reading this who has studied the video issue in detail to bring their wisdom and expertise to this thread.

I will say this: a fair-minded reading of Volume 4 of the GJ transcript suggests that Mr. Dorian Johnson believed that Mike Brown had stolen individual Swisher Sweets. However, that is Mr. Johnson's take on it and he also acknowledges that Mike Brown had lived at the apartment complex a lot longer than Johnson had. Thus, Johnson infers from Mike Brown's actions that he stole the cigarillos but, in Mr. Johnson's testimony, Mike Brown laughs it off almost as if Mike Brown did not consider it a theft, which makes me wonder if possibly Mike Brown ran a tab at the store or had some understanding with its management about payment.

What is also beyond dispute is that, in Mr. Johnson's account of their encounter with Officer Wilson, NO MENTION OF THE CIGARILLOS IS EVER MADE BY WILSON to either Mr. Johnson or to Mike Brown. Johnson's account has the ring of truth to it and reads like plain vanilla American literature of the Steinbeck\Upton Sinclair mold. I haven't read the transcript yet for the killer cop's testimony, but from what I've read about it, it sounds like bad pulp fiction.